Jalen Carey shares his excitement about going to Syracuse

While Syracuse Orange signee Jalen Carey was unable to play in the Jordan Brand Classic yesterday in Brooklyn, the future Syracuse guard was still made available for media sessions following the game. In that, he talked about how eager he was to get up to Syracuse to start taking classes and preparing for next season. When asked if he’ll be up for the summer, Carey acknowledged that he will be and that he’s looking forward to what lies ahead.

“I’m real real excited. I feel like when I get up there my game is going to change so much. Just staying in the gym 24 hours, that’s going to be real big. I think I leave in July. I’m looking forward to that and looking forward to getting better,” Carey said.

Having access to Melo 24/7 is assuredly a nice luxury to have as a Syracuse basketball player and of course, Carey’s game will evolve over the course of the summer and into the season.

Last year Syracuse was unable to get out on the break frequently given limited depth and a laser focus on defense, but Carey admits that getting out in transition is a big strength of his.

“I love playing in transition, that’s the one thing I like. I love playing downhill. We’ve got a lot of guys, hopefully Tyus comes back, Buddy is coming in, Frank is going to be there next year and Oshae has been playing real real well.”

Perhaps with a deeper bench Jim Boeheim will elect to get out on the run a bit more next season, but Syracuse hasn’t been much of a fast break team in recent years. Carey admits that he speaks with the aforementioned guys on the team here and there but said he expects those relationships will start to evolve and grow when he gets up to Syracuse this summer. As for what number he’ll wear next year? His response came with a little bravado, but in a good way. It sounds like we can expect him to don the number zero next season.

“Either five or zero. I’ll probably wear zero, I like Russell Westbrook and zero, that’s probably the amount of people that can guard me,” he said both wittingly and unabashed.

In one last anecdote, Jalen proclaimed that his mom is a wonderful chef but knows that home-cooked meals once at Syracuse will be few and far between, soon to be replaced by healthy eating.

“I know once I get up there they’re probably going to change my diet. I’m not going to lie I love to eat out, I just try to enjoy myself as a kid, I eat burgers and stuff like that. Here and there I might eat a salad just to keep my body,” He said.

Burgers?! Nobody tell Jalen about Ale N Angus or Empire...